Blazing New Trails - Connexions

CRITICAL ISSUES IN EDUCATION LEADERSHIP PREPARATION
Service to the Profession: The Forgotten Element of Tenure and the
Importance of Faculty Mentoring
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Janet Tareilo
In the field of higher education, achieving tenure reflects a professor’s achievements
in three predetermined and accepted areas: (1) scholarship; (2) teaching; and (3) service.
Granting a professor tenure gives a university a process and system that promotes and
recognizes excellence among their faculty members (Florida Atlantic University (FAU),
2006). This process generally includes a timeline of responsibilities, the expectations of
commitment and competency (FAU, 2006), and a record of a professor’s accomplishments in
scholarship, teaching, and service. For professors on the tenure track, this means that
scholarship needs to be connected to a defined research agenda, teaching evaluations must
reflect excellence in effective instructional methods, and service must indicate meaningful
contributions at the various levels of the profession.
Tenets of Tenure
Understanding the basis of tenure requires more reflection than a mere definition.
Whicker, Kronenfeld, and Strickland (1993) suggested, “Tenure is an important milestone in
the career of any professor” (p. 137). Stalcup (2006) pointed out, “Tenure was originally
developed to provide autonomy for creative scholarly pursuits and represents a solemn
contract between the institution and the academic” (p. 1). Mantero (2004) recognized that
tenure “is just a process that takes time and provides faculty with five or six years to support
their efforts in scholarly teaching and service” (p. 1). Regardless of the level of understanding
associated with tenure, professors at all stages of the profession face university requirements
for tenure. Assistant professors find themselves in a quandary due to the fact that the amount
and emphasis in the prescribed areas of tenure remains vague, university-specific, and
subjective. While college and university tenure policies state that research, teaching, and
service are required for tenure, very little instruction or guidance is given to assistant
professors as they begin their journeys in higher education.
The impact and importance of achieving tenure primarily affects newly positioned
assistant professors. Junior faculty members are usually directed to existing faculty to answer
questions concerning the university’s tenure requirements, the weight and importance of each
tenure criteria, and how they are to document their evidentiary material from research
endeavors, teaching loads, and service opportunities (Young, 2002). With the many changes
that face junior faculty, they must always be cognizant of the tenure process and prepared to
focus their time, efforts, and energies on the development of a meaningful tenure agenda
(Mantero, 2004). However, in the area of service, the amount required to meet tenure
expectations is still uncertain as is the meaning and definition of service (Whicker et al.,
1993). Research is needed to identify the role of service, ways assistant professors are
informed about service opportunities, and ways to achieve the service requirement.
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Janet Tareilo, Stephen F. Austin State University